Left hand drive car hire for Euro trip

voodoojimi

I am planning a big family trip to visit friends around Europe (namely Germany, Austria and perhaps Italy) towards the end of the year. I will have too much stuff for air travel and will take/bring back a lot of gifts, so want to go by car. I don't want to take my own car as I don't feel it is safe being on the "wrong" side of the car and don't want to put the mileage on either.

Does anyone know if I can hire a left hand drive car in England? Or have knowledge of any hire companies where I can safely leave my own car at the other end of the Channel Tunnel?

I was going to do something similar a couple of years ago and recall that one of the larger car hire companies had a scheme where you could hire a car in England and swap it when you get to France. I have trawled all of the sites and internet without finding any reference to this.

v_aleri

voodoojimi wrote: »

I am planning a big family trip to visit friends around Europe (namely Germany, Austria and perhaps Italy) towards the end of the year. I will have too much stuff for air travel and will take/bring back a lot of gifts, so want to go by car. I don't want to take my own car as I don't feel it is safe being on the "wrong" side of the car and don't want to put the mileage on either.

Does anyone know if I can hire a left hand drive car in England? Or have knowledge of any hire companies where I can safely leave my own car at the other end of the Channel Tunnel?

I was going to do something similar a couple of years ago and recall that one of the larger car hire companies had a scheme where you could hire a car in England and swap it when you get to France. I have trawled all of the sites and internet without finding any reference to this.

YES PLEASE.
I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!!

DOES ANYONE HAVE EXPERIENCE ABOUT THIS?
ANYONE TRAVEL TO EUROPE BY CAR?

omelette451

Can you not just get the ferry/train to France and pick up a hire car at the port/arrival station there?

knightstyle

There are specialist companies in the UK that sell LHD cars, maybe now sales are slack they might hire you a car? Friends had this problem so one of them flew to France, hired a minibus, it came with European insurance, drove back to UK, picked everyone up and then drove to France and Luxembourg where they were having a holiday. Then they all flew back. Tiring but not too expensive.

mad_rich

I think you're thinking of "Le Swap" which was run by Hertz at Dover/ Calais and, later, at the tunnel. I believe it was pretty expensive, not very smooth and was eventually discontinued. Details in this article from the NY times from 15 years ago!

Many car-hire companies allow you to drive abroad now. Could you get a cheap flight/ Eurostar to Paris/ Brussels/ Lille and hire a car there, drive it back to the UK to pick up your stuff?

I think the easiest & cheapest option is hiring on the continent and finding somewhere to leave your car. You would have the pick of anywhere in northern France/ Belgium/ Luxembourg etc. when searching for the cheapest car hire. And you could maybe do a deal with the rental agency for a parking space.

knightstyle

Cheapest car hire in France is from a Supermarket such as SuperU or HyperU. Plus the price is all inclusive, no nasty extras. Your UK license is fine.

v_aleri

thank's all of you guys for the replys.

wonder why this isn't a good business. It's so expensive to travel a family with trains/plane, then car. Not to say the baggage problem, taxi to airport. Why cant we rent a car from here?

anyway,
just complaining.